Open Thread: Your best tip on doing presentations

As I mentioned yesterday, I'll be leading a discussion on Tinderbox and "the trusted system" tomorrow. Probably running a few Keynote slides, but mostly just casually chatting with a small group of enthusiastic Tinderbox fans.

I'm not a seasoned public speaker by anyone's estimation, so I've made my share of rookie mistakes in the past (hint: avoid doing a rambling, overlong talk without slides at ETech; people get confused, hungry, and eventually want to defenestrate you).

So, as I prep myself for tomorrow, I turn to you guys:

What's your best presentation tip? What's the "never break it" rule for PowerPoint/Keynote decks? What's your favorite site, article, or link on great presentations? How do I get that Lessig-, Jobs-, or Veen-like fu that makes audiences so giddy? (Self-links are okay within reason here)

I'll be over here imagining people in their underwear, but I'd love to hear your best advice on this stuff.

Update 2005-11-19 21:37:26

I've posted the slides from my talk today along with links to some of the posts and cool applications I mentioned.

Summary: went well! Very enthusiastic group -- great questions and conversations. And no one threw rotten vegetables. Elinliked it, and that's good enough for me. :-)

I design other people's PowerPoint presentations, and I have seen DREADFUL abuses of this one rule:

Each slide should 'say' one thing.

A few bullet points are fine if they are cleverly done and attractive, but too many get scattered and make you look like you're not confident. Which, as all of us who know you via site, board and podcast know, you are n-o-t.

From a presenter standpoint, the things that helped me most in my 12+ years of pitching as a copywriter are:

Practice, practice, practice.

Streamline.

Practice again.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

The more you are 'off-book', as we say in the acting biz, the more freedom and fun you will have as you present. And that's what sells the presentation.

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